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Orlando Terror Attack. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 13, 2016 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:01] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Buy a body armor from a store in recent weeks. That may mean he was plotting the attack on the gay nightclub for some time.

Also new this morning, we learned that all but one of the murder victims have been identified. Authorities are now wading through the grim task of notifying their next of kin. The numbers now clarified. A total of 49 clubgoers killed early Sunday morning. Another 53 are wounded. The shooter killed by police in an explosion of gunfire.

And we have new insights into the horrific moments after police stormed this gay nightclub and killed the shooter. Police confronted by the carnage and desperate to save any lives possible, they yell out among the dozens of victims, if you are alive, raise your hand. And adding to the horror, cell phones ringing unanswered among the dead and wounded, frantic family members learning of the attack and desperately trying to reach their missing loved ones.

We're covering all the angles of the story. The victims, the killer, and his possible ties to ISIS, but let's begin with the investigation.

Evan Perez has more on that. Good morning, Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. We know from investigators that the shooter attempted to buy military- grade body armor, but he failed to make that purchase in recent weeks. Now this goes to at least for the investigators from the investigative point of view that it seems to indicate that he's been planning this attack for some time.

Now we don't know exactly why the store that he went to did not sell him the body armor. He attempted to buy level three body armor. This is something that really only the military uses. It's something that is even above what police department's issue to their police officers but it indicates at least to investigators that he may have been planning this attack for weeks and that he did not plan to die there. He wanted to make this a drawn-out -- long drawn-out siege with police, Carol.

COSTELLO: We know he bought -- do we know where he bought the body armor? And tell us again what kind of weapons that gunman bought, just what was it, a week or two ago?

PEREZ: Right, exactly. He was able to buy at least two firearms that were found at the scene. One was a -- one was a Glock pistol and the second was a Sig Sauer rifle. Those purchases were made earlier in June, I believe June 4th, June 5th. There was nothing at all that came up in his background check. After all, he did have a concealed carry permit from the state of Florida. He also had a license as an armed security guard from the state of Florida, so really nothing would have come up in his background check. He had no problems buying those firearms.

There was a third firearm, Carol, that was recovered from his vehicle. It was a Smith & Wesson revolver. They're still doing a check -- a trace of that firearm to see where that came from, but keep in mind, again, there was nothing in his background that would have prevented him from being able to buy firearms. It's not clear exactly why he was not able to complete the purchase for this body armor that he tried to buy, Carol.

COSTELLO: And one more question. He was a security guard. Who did he provide security for? And what did he guard?

PEREZ: Well, he worked for a company called G4S. This is one of the major security services companies in this country. It provides -- it has contracts to do a lot of security services for state and local and federal governments. In this case he worked for the St. Lucie County courthouse. It appears that that's where he was assigned to. And there's a detention center that's attached to the court system there in St. Lucie County which is where he lived.

And according to G4S, he underwent the background checks that were necessary. The company says that they were aware back in 2013 when he was -- when he was interviewed by the FBI, they were aware of that, but, again, he went through the background checks and nothing came up that would deny him the ability to have a license and to work for this company, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez reporting live for us this morning.

I want to throw it back to Erin for more on -- more on this shooter's background -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So you know what's interesting is we've just learned, for all of you watching who may have missed it, the shooter's father speaking in a press conference and giving us a little bit more detail, saying that he had no idea that his son had terror sympathies but he without question called this an act of terror.

We have been piecing together bits and pieces of this gunman's personality. Violence towards his wife. His -- of course, he had a long track record, almost nine years of working at one company. A person who attended mosque regularly, as often as three to four times a week.

[10:05:02] The gunman's father, though, of course, emphasizing that he never saw -- he says the family never saw any red flags.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEDDIQUE MIR MATEEN, ORLANDO GUNMAN'S FATHER: My family is completely -- we are shocked. We can't believe what did he do, and I want to take this message out. I don't allow nobody to do any kind of crime or terrorist act inside the United States, and I don't allow it. My principle as a father, my principle as a U.S. citizen, I have been throughout my life against terrorism, against injustice, against what the anyone can do against the United States, especially my homeland USA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. I want to go to Polo Sandoval now.

And Polo, I know you're in Fort Pierce outside the gunman's apartment, where Omar lived, a different place than his father obviously. But we are learning these bits and pieces. You know, at first it seemed, Polo, right, well, this was a guy who had gone to the same mosque since 2003. A guy who had worked for the same employer for nearly nine years. None of that seeming to fit with a model that one might expect of someone who committed an act like this. But you've been learned about details about his personality that showed he could be incredibly unstable.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And really the common comment here among some of these people, too, is that many individuals described him as an antisocial individual. The comments that we've heard from -- through our conversations with some of the neighbors here that have finally been able to return home, they basically go in line with what we just heard from the gunman's father and what we're seeing here is a state of disbelief. People really wondering how a person living so close to them would be capable of creating and carrying out such a brutal attack.

And so that's what we're getting from people here. Many of them returning home for the first time since they were asked to leave their home when the bomb squad and SWAT team members made their way to this house just yesterday morning. In fact, the parking lot that's often used by the residents here now a makeshift media staging area as residents have not made their way back home quite yet.

But again, police did release the scene early this morning. We caught up with one gentleman in particular who made his way back this morning, even described several encounters with the suspect himself saying really they only exchanged a couple of awkward stares, but aside from that a very antisocial individual.

I want you to listen to a portion of what he had to say when we caught up with him as he made his way back home, the neighbor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON BEERS, LIVES NEAR GUNMAN: Very quiet. Kept to himself. Greet normally everybody around here when he come down, he'd say hello, good morning, you know. He never said anything. Kept to himself. I mean, you never know. I mean, he looked like the normal Joe. And he wasn't obviously. You never know who your neighbor is, bottom line.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: So a state of shock, disbelief, and even that neighbor told us a state of feeling disgusted by knowing what possibly could have been planned in the same complex that he lives in.

Last detail I should mention, we did notice that a vehicle is still in the parking lot with some evidence stickers on it. Inside you can clearly see what is an inventory sheet, a sign that federal investigators actually looked through that vehicle just yesterday alone.

The documents actually have Omar Mateen's name on it and then you see an inventory of some of the items that were taken, including DNA samples and also some vacuum samples. While that is standard procedure in several of these investigations, it also really supports what we heard from federal prosecutors just north of here in Orlando, that they're looking at least trying to either rule out or possibly include this idea that maybe there were other individuals involved in at least the planning process.

So, again, this still a very fluid investigation. For the people, though, in this community, as the headline said this morning, he was one of us. A member of what is usually a quiet place here in St. Lucie County, Florida.

BURNETT: So, Polo, let me just ask you a question there on that front. You talk about him being -- they were saying antisocial, not really involved, but they are obviously now desperately trying to find if anyone else knew, if he had confided with anyone, plotted with anyone. Crucial, crucial things they must know, especially in a state that they're now worried about if anyone else knew, what else could happen further.

Three to four times a week he went to mosque we have now learned as recently as two days ago. Within the Muslim community, Polo, are you getting any sense of whether they feel there were warning signs that were missed?

SANDOVAL: Yes. It's a great question. We had an opportunity to speak to the imam of that place of worship really. Not necessarily a mosque, but it is a place where members of the Muslim community here would come together to pray. And my takeaway according to the man who was leading prayer yesterday was that when he would come in, as early -- really the latest on Friday, he would essentially come in, pray, and leave, not necessarily interact with other members.

So that is what we're getting. However, when he was younger, according to some of these reports, he would interact and was a bit more social than he was lately. So I think that that at least gives us a better idea of what kind individual he is.

[10:10:06] One thing I should mention, though, in my conversation with some of these members of this Islamic center, there is that concern that this will lead to misunderstandings, that people could misdirect some of this hate and anger towards members of this community here in Fort Pierce. So I can tell you that there's their concern right now is more on education and also on praying for the victims of the shooting.

BURNETT: All right. Polo Sandoval, thank you very much -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Erin. Thanks so much.

Right behind is the club. It's called Pulse. There's a lot of police activity right now. Actually police are -- well, they're getting in lines and they're looking for any spent ammunition on the ground. They're also piecing together what exactly went -- what exactly went on inside that club because we really don't know how the gunman entered the club, how he made his way through. There are so many unanswered questions this morning.

I want to bring in Orlando City commissioner Patty Sheehan.

Thank you so much for being here with me. You are the first openly gay commissioner in the city of Orlando.

PATTY SHEEHAN, ORLANDO COMMISSIONER: Yes.

COSTELLO: So this deeply affects you.

SHEEHAN: It's very devastating for my community. You know, not just the families that were affected in the nightclub. My community as a whole is in mourning. People wanted to have a vigil and we said no, we need law enforcement resources here. We had to take some officers to Lake Hill Park last night because people had a vigil anyway.

Again, we're really encouraged by the things people are doing nationally and internationally. But right now we need to have all hands on deck. Some of these officers have been on duty for 24 hours straight. They're working really hard. It's very hot outside right now and I'm just so proud of them.

And I have to tell you, there could have been a lot more casualties if not for the heroic efforts of the Orlando Police Department. They did an amazing job. There's been some criticism, you know, why didn't they -- why didn't they move in faster? Well, you know, the gunman shot, then he was leaving and then he went back in and then he had hostages. That's why that happened. So I want to be clear. OPD --

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the club itself.

SHEEHAN: Yes, OK.

COSTELLO: Because I have heard that there's only one way into that club, which would mean that there's only one way out.

SHEEHAN: There's actually an emergency exit on one of the bars. So --

COSTELLO: So were people pouring out of that emergency exit as well as far as you know?

SHEEHAN: I don't know. I don't know.

COSTELLO: Because it seems to me that people are having a difficult time getting out.

SHEEHAN: Yes. Like I say, I know there's -- I know that there's an emergency exit in one of the back bars. Not in the middle one. And there's actually the entrance, but there is an entrance that goes into the -- there's like three different sections, and then there's an emergency exit at the back. So I don't know what happened. I don't know if the gunman was blocking that exit. I really -- we really don't know the particulars at this time.

COSTELLO: I know that there was an armed guard at the front of the bar.

SHEEHAN: Yes. Actually it's an off-duty police officer. What our officers do is they're asked to -- to do security at different off- duty venues. They get paid by the venue to do that, and that's what this officer was doing. He was actually first on the scene, called backup. The backup came almost immediately, and then the full, you know, response.

COSTELLO: So how would you characterize this attack?

SHEEHAN: This is an act of hatred and terror, and, you know, I mean, people wonder why the gay community needs the protections we do. This is particularly why, because people hate us. They hate us. They don't know us but they seem to hate us, and, you know, I have been -- I've seen half my community die of AIDS. You know, I have seen people victimized and victims of discrimination, and now I see my community mowed down in the largest act of violence and terror in American history and it's so sad for me.

You know, I was walking on the street yesterday, and one of my friends is an anchor from a local station. He called me, he was crying, and I looked down and there was blood all over the sidewalk. And it just really hits home. You can see where people had been dragged across the street and it's just horrifying that these young people died in this horrible way. They were so young and had so much promise.

COSTELLO: The beautiful things, though, so many vigils across the country.

(CROSSTALK)

SHEEHAN: The vigils across the country --

COSTELLO: Around the world.

SHEEHAN: The people lighting up the rainbow on buildings. It just -- this warms our hearts. The 1500 people at the blood bank yesterday. The fact that they lifted the ban on gay men giving blood. You know, so that they could give blood for the first time in years. These are all things that give us hope, and I know that this community is going to be stronger for this because we are a people who love and love can conquer hate every single time. And I have always told my community, we've been angry and we've been active and we've been trying to fight for our rights. I have told them, we can't do that in a manner of hatred. We have to do it in a manner of love and show who we are and do that and show our voice and we're going to do that strongly in this community, Carol.

COSTELLO: Patty Sheehan, thank you so much for taking time. I appreciate it.

I'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:15:01] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: From my perspective it matters what we do more than what we say. I have clearly said that we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people, and, you know, whether you call it radical jihadism, radical Islamism I think they mean the same thing. I'm happy to say either, but what I won't do because I think it is dangerous for our efforts to defeat this threat is to demonize and demagogue and, you know, declare war on an entire religion. That plays right into ISIS' hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: The attack in Orlando has caused a ripple effect on the campaign trail. Of course it was immediate. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been fighting over the term radical Islam, when to say it and whether it applies to what happened at the Pulse nightclub.

Now this war of words started out on Twitter and played out this morning right here on CNN. Listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:20:05] CLINTON: My perspective, it matters what we do more than what we say. I have clearly said that we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people, and you know, whether you call it radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing. I'm happy to say either, but what I won't do because I think it is dangerous for our efforts to defeat this threat is to demonize and demagogue and, you know, declare war on an entire religion. That plays right into ISIS' hands.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You have tremendous numbers of people with it this tremendous radical hate. The first thing you need is you need a president that's going to mention the problem, and he won't even mention what the problem is, and unless you're going to mention -- unless you're going to say it's radical Islamic terrorism and hate, unless you're going to say that, Christine, it's going to be -- you're never going to solve it.

And you have Hillary Clinton refuses to use the words. Now she doesn't really believe that she shouldn't use it. She's afraid to use it because --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Trump, on our show this morning, she did say that.

TRUMP: President Obama doesn't want to use it. And you know --

ROMANS: She did say that this morning. She said --

TRUMP: He's the boss, OK, and she's afraid of him because obviously, you know, she probably thinks that has a very profound effect over her life.

ROMANS: Let me jump in, I don't know if you can hear me on the phone.

TRUMP: He's protecting her from going to jail.

ROMANS: Let me jump in because--

TRUMP: So she's not going to use it. But I bet you that she would believe that she would love to use those words.

ROMANS: She said --

TRUMP: Because almost everybody agrees that those words should be used.

ROMANS: She said, Mr. Trump, on our interview with her just an hour ago that she's happy to use the words radical Islam, that she's happy to use the words, that the semantics aren't an issue. It's, you know, this is now about, right, investigating what happened, finding the motive, finding out more about this man, this murderer, and figuring out if there's anything we can do to prevent something like this.

TRUMP: The greatest source and -- first of all, we have to stop people from coming in from Syria. We're taking them in by the thousands, and you're going to have tremendous problems. You will have problems. Right now you will have problems like we've never seen before, and this will only get worse because we have very weak leadership and Hillary is going to be weaker than Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. Here to talk now, our chief political correspondent Dana Bash joins us along with Errol Louis, our political commentator, political anchor for NY1, Buck Sexton also joining the conversation, political commentator, former CIA counter terror analyst.

Let me start with you, Dana. What was very interesting about this was Hillary Clinton was very specific in saying she was fine to use the words as she said and Christine just pointed out, radical jihadism or radical Islamism, they mean the same thing but she doesn't want to declare war on a whole religion. Did she just take the wind out of Donald Trump's sails? He was making his whole argument about -- the fact that he says Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won't use the words radical Islam. She just did.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: She did. And it is -- you know, for people out there watching this, saying, wait a minute, is this just semantics? It's not because this has been a huge sort of red meat line on the campaign trail throughout the entire Republican primary season. It is one of the things that made every -- pretty much every Republican the same on this issue saying mostly that Barack Obama and then also Hillary Clinton won't call it radical Islam, and it was a huge applause line at rallies across the country that I went to again during the Republican primary season because for Republicans and for a lot of their supporters and even some independents, it appears, they think that that is the ultimate in political correctness.

And, you know, you got to call it what it is. Now the reason we know and you can speak to some of our other guests about this, we know the reason why President Obama has been reluctant to do that is because he doesn't want to kind of wrap the whole religion into what appears to be radicalism, but Hillary Clinton understands that it is different, and she is trying to say that you can't do that, but you got to call it what it is, and so I think that's why this is a very important moment in the campaign and one that shows my understanding in talking to Democratic sources, Erin, that for the first time Democrats feel that they might have a leg up on national security. They don't want to lose that.

BURNETT: Right. And, Errol, you know what's interesting? In another interview this morning Donald Trump also on the phone said this, and I want to quote it because, Errol, I want to get your view on exactly what he was saying here. He's talking about Barack Obama's handling of this terror so far and he says, quote, "He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It's one or the other. What is he saying do you think, Errol?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's the kind of baseless smear that we've heard from Donald Trump since his birtherism episodes from a number of years ago. And you know, what's really important to note here, Carol, is that this is baby talk, right?

[10:25:01] I mean, whether or not somebody said the magic words. Did he say Islamist or Islamic and did he -- did he say it enough times and did she say it enough times? It really doesn't mean anything. The question that Christine was trying to get Donald Trump to answer, which, of course he did not answer, is what would be his policy. The closest thing we've heard to a policy from him has been to bomb the hell out of ISIS and to ban Muslims from immigrating to the United States.

Now how that would have helped 29 years ago when this particular terrorist was born in the United States as an American citizen with all of his constitutional rights intact, I'm not sure how that's supposed to work. So -- and then this notion that the president somehow kind, you know, of knows what's going on but, you know, is secretly trying to shelter some faction of terrorist is baseless. It's not something that should be taken seriously or, frankly, even repeated.

This is the kind of chitchat you hear on right-wing radio day and night, mostly night, but it doesn't belong on a presidential debate. BURNETT: Right. But this of course is the presumptive nominee for

president of the United States for the Republican Party, Buck. And what he said there, perhaps very significant. The obvious implications, of course, are very ugly. So let me read it to you, Buck. He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody else -- than anybody understands. I'm sorry. He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anyone understands, it's one or the other.

That's Donald Trump this morning about President Obama. What do you think he was saying, Buck?

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, just to preface I was unable to hear what your other guest had said, so I can't respond to that. I can hear you, Erin, but I couldn't hear Errol. I'm not really clear on what Donald Trump is trying to say there. It's oftentimes hard for somebody on the right side of the aisle to see what it is that he views as his foreign policy, to see what it is that he views as what his statements are trying to accomplish.

On the point about Hillary Clinton, I mean, calling something that's as obviously and blatantly radical Islamism or radical jihadism as this attack, I mean, to call it what it is and to then sort of claim that somehow this is a semantic victory, it seems a bit strange to me that it would take her this long to get to this point.

The Obama administration has obviously been staying away from it. We all recognize that. President Obama didn't mention Islam I believe in any context yesterday in the speech even to say that this is not part of Islam or to defend it. He certainly didn't say anything about how this is a part of Islamic jihad or jihadism or Islamism and the hesitation to speak about these things openly and honestly I think has been a campaign talking point because it does make people really uncomfortable.

You can't tell us we're in ideological war which most experts will agree right now, there's an ideological war between a subset of people within Islam. It's a percentage but keep in mind Islam is very large so even a small percentage can cause tremendous problems around the world and much of the western world. By the way, also much of the non-believing world, other Muslims.

There is a huge ideological war going on. And the inability to speak about it and speak openly about it seems to be an enormous disadvantage from go. So what President Obama says about Barack Obama I can't -- sorry, what Donald Trump says about President Obama I can't tell you what he's trying to say, but I do know that the administration's hesitation, hearing Hillary Clinton's hesitation gives people real pause.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Buck, Errol, Dana. Appreciate all of your time. But we're going to take a break. And of course we're getting new information about an American suicide bomber at this hour. This is new information about American suicide bomber who attended the same mosque as the Orlando gunman.

More on that breaking news as we're continuing to run that down. That will be right after this break. We'll be back.

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